Bastion
Humanity's response to The Eldritch. Bastion is an organization whose roots stretch back to the Roman Empire, and whose purpose extends even beyond that. It organizes Excubitors to repel Eldritch manifestations in the human world. Using Abilities in conjunction with weaponry, Bastion employs any means necessary to safeguard the human race. Details Bastion is present in every large nation. The branch in this story consists of approximately 1000 Excubitors and a large number of maintenance staff and specialists. It is funded by the three Houses: House Laurent, House Beaumont, and House Durand. In addition to its direct staff, Bastion employs various members in the government, including but not limited to the police force. Generally, a nation's Bastion will be centered in either its Capital City or its most populated city under the guise of a large government building. Bastion HQs frequently have an extensive network of tunnels. Directorates Bastion is divided into 5 Directorates for organization and clear separation of duties. *1st Directorate: Executive Regional Committee **Central administrative office, responsible for command and control of personnel and activities. **Includes H.R, recruitment, foreign relations with other Bastion branches, and collaboration with political factions. **makes executive decisions regarding the direction of activities and goals of Bastion. **Are also responsible for choosing candidates to offer as choices for noble houses to take in as guards and trainers, mostly from InCube and AESOP. *2nd Directorate: Ministry of Disciplinary Affairs **Resolves disciplinary infractions: misuse of abilities or usage in public without reasonable justification, internal abuse of power, disobedience, crime e.g. theft/assault/bribery. **Has dedicated investigative and law enforcement Excubitor operatives, as well as huge network of collaborationist agents in everyday law enforcement and judiciary government functions. **Nicknamed Greenies due to their green uniform, though they are often in civilian disguises. **''Department A: Internal Incidents Inquisition (In-Cube, or Inquisitors):'' for incidents of treason where the perpetrator's actions are a clear and present threat to the stability and well-being of Bastion as a whole. Includes espionage, sabotage, betrayal, murder, clear intent of undermining the foundation of Bastion's interests. They have a dedicated, autonomous substructure that contains its own investigative operatives and Inquisitor squads. Experts at hunting humans. *3rd Directorate: Analysis, Research, and Development **Research of retrievable samples, scientific testing, analysis, includes some R&D and weapons development, as well as research into the arcane. *4th Directorate: **Manages day-to-day dispatches of squads and operatives to deal with reports of Eldritch influence. **Manages field-recon to actively seek out and preempt Eldritch threats that are beyond the detection capability of conventional investigative forces **''Advanced Eldritch/Supernatural Operations (AESOP)'': squad of Elites whose abilities are developed purely for offensive, counter-Eldritch operations.They are the best at dispatching Eldritch cases due to teamwork, efficiency, synergy, and mental fortitude. *5th Directorate: Records, Logistics, and Intelligence **Management of data, archiving, and recording report files of all personnel and Bastion associates. **Provides support/utility forces in dealing with aftermath of operations and necessary cleanup in all fields (physical, information, etc). **Provides broad-based intelligence on all aspects of society and political situations in respect to Bastion activities History Since the Classical Age, humans have faced their horrors in the form of beings from beyond their plane of existence. The ancient Greeks were one of the first civilizations to develop countermeasures against this force after discovering the latent abilities in mankind, but because they were not united and found themselves more loyal to their individual interests rather than city-states, and to their city-states rather than the Greek civilization as a whole, their attempts at defense often failed, causing their states to rise and fall cyclically through many generations, leaving only fragments of their experiences facing this threat. Nonetheless, those who were able to manifest their latent abilities still frequently appeared throughout history, many playing major roles in politics, war, and culture, shaping the very course of Western civilization through their individual actions. It was only during the Roman Empire that a government sufficiently structured and expansive enough came into existence to provide protective coverage across the continent in a unified, organized manner. This precursor of Bastion fell under the jurisdiction of the Roman government, split into four branches for the prefectures of conquered lands with one branch responsible for the capital region itself. It was also the first to organize a systematic recruitment plan for the search of qualified individuals, primarily from the army and its pool of veteran officers, to fill its ranks, rendering this early Bastion a combat-centered force. However, in neglecting defense and failing to take heed of the effects of the Psychoatrophic Field, the Romans suffered a high casualty rate that left many dead and even more traumatized, forcing the Romans to reevaluate their strategies. But without the scientific method and a correct understanding of the world, many early forms of research did not yield the protection that was needed, and consequentially they never got around to resolving this problem. Faced with the unfortunate but necessary loss of many talented men, their army was left weakened; coupled with divisive internal politics and a variety of other factors, the pressure of barbarians ultimately broke down the Empire into two. Yet it was in the Byzantine Empire that Bastion was truly formed, and when the Excubitors found their name. Known as the Excubitors, literally meaning "those out of bed," these men were wardens of the night, awake when others are deep in slumber and are blissfully unaware of the dangers that scratch at the door of their realm. The Byzantine Empire carried over many lessons from the Roman Empire and coupled with a cultural and religious shift, this new organization began to appreciate the need for extensive support and care among the teams themselves in order to be efficient in regards to the usage of operatives, causing them to designate a utility-based role in addition to the combat-based ones. But while the Byzantine Empire was perfecting its usage of its manpower, numerous early Germanic states began to form in the wake of the Empire's fall, many of them not understanding the Eldritch threat and finding themselves hard-pressed to respond. Hence the beginning of the Dark Ages. Marked as a period of relative stagnation economically, intellectually, and culturally, the Dark Ages also coincide a period of time when Eldritch forces had the easiest access into humanity's plane. Death was widespread from both natural and human factors, and states were preoccupied with each other rather than the vague Eldritch threat that always hung in the corner. They paid little attention about the early Bastion that Rome employed, and consequently found themselves frequently facing internal strife. Research into the occult was one method in which they attempted to hold off their supernatural enemies, but its effectiveness was inconsistent at best and at worst, catastrophic in its failures. With Eldritch influence pervading most of the continent, the very collective unconscious of the European man's mind began to develop a shift in a values, resulting in the aforementioned deterioration and stagnation of progress. This culminated in the Black Death, one of the largest episodes of Eldritch attacks that were disguised in the form of pestilence and plague. The resulting decline in population left profound effects upon the continent, destroying the status quo through a chaotic upheaval that brought down the old social structure of feudalism and irrevocably pushed humanity to a different state. And though it may have not been the original intentions of the Eldritch forces, humanity's persistence and ability to endure and survive hardship led to its salvation. Catalyzed by the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire, there was a large migration of scholars and texts to Italy where the seeds of the Renaissance were planted. Alongside the progress in social development, there was finally a recognition of the achievements of the Byzantine Empire in their counter-Eldritch operations. With the printing press, ideas spread across the continent and numerous states began to adopt this structure if they could afford doing so. This led to a period of relative peace in terms of Eldritch incursions, but not with other states. Conflict still existed and armies were enhanced by the existence of Excubitors. However, few states had enough manpower to risk in war without compromising domestic security, so ultimately the presence of Excubitors had minimal effect upon war. During this time, Bastion was not an international force; the branches in different states had with nothing in common save for the overall organizational structure, as states preferred to keep to themselves. This would all change during the Age of Enlightenment. As philosophy enriched the human mind, the intellectuals began to pry into the questions of the nature of human existence, many of them dealing with the issue of Eldritches as a complementary question. Schools of thought all offered explanations, though none had evidence to back up their hypotheses. Even the Scientific Revolution could yield nothing, since nobody had the proper knowledge on how to examine Eldritch remains or analyze their contents. Nonetheless, the philosophical attempts to explain human existence effectively brought around the notion of humanity as a unified whole, the concept that man is born under the same conditions with possibly prerogatives and objectives, facing similar hardships irregardless of their individual origins. Alongside these developments were the practical ones brought by the Industrial Revolution, a time period of technological progression that also assisted in developing new means to combat the Eldritch threat. At this time period, many European states also had rulers who hailed from the same royal family, such as the Capetian Dynasty. With other states being ruled by distant kin, the desire to cooperate became strong enough that limited cooperation between various states began, allowing Bastion to finally connect with its other branches that were originally locked within state borders. For a hundred years this network has been strengthening in spite of occasional strife, its first test being Napoleon's conquests and its second, greater test being the Great War. The former was resolved with little permanent damage to the network as the primary offender was Napoleon, who was viewed as a warmonger that did not represent the true harmony between states. However, the Great War was one that tested that notion, as states fought each other out of purely political reasons, forming factions that dragged the entire continent into a many years of attrition. Realizing that the problems of loyalty which plagued the Greeks remained present even millennia later, Bastion across Europe began a reevaluation of its loyalties, restructuring and trying to recover from the aftermath of the war. Thankful that the Eldritch threat, which had been contained effectively for many generations, did not resurgence during their moments of weakness, Bastion was able to confidently face the turn of the decade with relief, taking control of continental security in the backdrop of economic prosperity and cultural dynamism.